PharmacyView has been developed by Nugensis, a leading UK IT company with a particular interest in health and social care, in partnership with NHS hospital pharmacists. It is already in use across five NHS Boards in Scotland – Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Borders, Tayside and Fife – and there is significant interest from others. Nugensis believes that PharmacyView is just as relevant to hospitals in the rest of the UK and is currently in the final stages of discussions with several hospital trusts in England.
PharmacyView has been developed by Nugensis, a leading UK IT company with a particular interest in health and social care, in partnership with NHS hospital pharmacists. It is already in use across five NHS Boards in Scotland – Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Borders, Tayside and Fife – and there is significant interest from others. Nugensis believes that PharmacyView is just as relevant to hospitals in the rest of the UK and is currently in the final stages of discussions with several hospital trusts in England.
Accessible via desktops, laptops and Wi-Fi-enabled handheld mobile devices, the tool enables pharmacists to identify and prioritise pharmaceutical care from anywhere and, in particular, while on the ward. At a glance, they can see every patient’s name, age and admittance details, their location within the hospital and their pharmaceutical triage status. The system indicates whether referral to a pharmacist is required (or in progress or completed), the patient’s triage category and review date, and provides updates on discharge and whether an Immediate Discharge Letter and prescription is required.
As well as eliminating paperwork and reducing the amount of time pharmacists spend on administration, PharmacyView facilitates handovers, makes it easier to identify the location of priority patients, and expedites workload planning. Built-in alerts notify users if key tasks, such as medicines reconciliation, have not been completed on time. Patients can also be more easily tracked as they move around a hospital site.
‘PharmacyView is a real-time clinical workflow tool that gives pharmacists more control over their workloads since they can more easily decide which patients they should see first based on need rather than location in the hospital,’ says Stewart McQuillian, Operations Director at Nugensis. The system sits above but can be linked to e-prescribing platforms such as JAC and Ascribe or used as a standalone solution. Nugensis believes that PharmacyView can save around 30 minutes of a pharmacist’s time each day. It also helps senior charge nurses and bed managers plan more effectively as they can see when immediate discharge letters have been completed, reducing the number of phone calls to pharmacy staff.
‘In the past, it was difficult to provide continuity of pharmaceutical care when patients moved around the hospital or between hospitals. Patient turnover is so fast now that we need a system to record all clinical pharmacy assessments that is immediately visible and follows the patient, which PharmacyView has helped us achieve,’ says Angela Munday, Lead Pharmacist, Patient Services at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. This Board comprises six acute sites, including the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, one of the largest hospital complexes in Europe.
‘We can now more easily and quickly visibly record patient assessment on admission and prioritise individual patients rather than prioritising wards or clinical specialties. The system is intuitive and easy-to-use – even staff who are wary of new technology could use it after a two-minute demonstration,’ says Munday.
Scott Garden, Chief Pharmacist for Acute Services at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline says: ‘In the fast-paced environment of an acute hospital, PharmacyView enables the pharmacy team to communicate better with each other, more effectively target resources on patients based on risk, improve patient safety and speed up the discharge process. PharmacyView has been easy for staff to use and enables them to manage their workload more efficiently.’
PharmacyView seamlessly integrates with WardView, Nugensis’s alternative to the traditional ward whiteboard. This electronic patient information system enables the multidisciplinary team to view and maintain an up-to-date overview of the patients under their care at a glance. It interfaces with existing hospital systems, displaying real-time clinical data and a single view of a ward.
